Sunday, August 16, 2009

Cleaning and clearing

"Gifts are not given in with the expectation that they will hence forth be forever strapped to your person and household and hauled around like a ball and chain. Gifts are about love and that's what we are supposed to carry." ~ Charity Beasley, aka Vegbee

I was cruising through random blogs, and I found this quote. I love it! After reading and contemplating that thought, I am ready to go through the stack of rubbermaid totes in the garage marked "misc stuff".

In recent years, we've seen the passing of several of our elder relatives. And the one thing they all leave behind: A house full of stuff. Gosh, if I have this much stuff now, I'll be leaving behind hoards of junk for my family to sort through! I'm only in my 40s, another 50 or 60 years of birthdays, mother's days, Christmases, Valentine Days, etc. and I'll be so buried in stuff that I wont' be able to move.

But it is so hard to give away gifts! If someone gives me a gift, I keep it! I just hate taking gifts back to the store too. I will say, gifts are a hard thing to part with since they were Gifts! I also have a hard time giving away baby things. And old toys. And anything the kids or I made. And Halloween costumes. Sigh. I'm a packrat!

I had best take advantage of my sudden urge to purge before the feeling escapes me. I'm off to fill up donation bags for the Salvation Army! That's better than throwing anything away, I can't go that far! At least if I'm not going to keep it, someone else might find a use for it and my stuff will live on.

3 comments:

Julie H said...

Yep, you can't take it with you, and if you aren't loving it maybe someone else will!

Wolfpak5 said...

I have learned a lesson when we went to Spuddie's and was cleaning. I have an extra bedroom and now it's used for storage and I have it pretty full now.

Alicia said...

That is the whole reason we move! We have to take so much stuff to the thrift store or have a yard sale! Talk about cutting down. We have a 26 foot truck for next week and I hope that it is not any where near full!